Ezekiel 23

“Therefore thus says the Lord God: ‘Because you have forgotten Me and cast Me behind your back, therefore you shall bear the penalty of your lewdness and your harlotry.’” Ezekiel 23:35 (NKJV)

In today’s chapter, God refers to Israel as “Ohoah” (tent) and Jerusalem as “Ohlivah” (My tent is in her). The image of the tent most likely refers to the Tent of Meeting, the Tabernacle. Long since abandoned in exchange for the Temple in Jerusalem, the Tabernacle was still symbolic of spiritual intimacy, which was supposed to distinguish Israel’s relationship to God from all the other nations’ relationships with their false gods.

Of course, we all know the intimate activities of a man & wife in their “tent,” and that is exactly the point God is making to Israel. They had a “marriage” relationship, and the worship relationship between God and His people should be the most significant and intimate thing on earth. Yet Israel had “whored” herself to the non-gods of the nations.

Let’s put this in somewhat graphic yet contemporary terms. Suppose a man & woman get married, and one day, the man comes home early and sees an unfamiliar car in his driveway. When he enters his home, the husband sees a strange gentleman sitting at his kitchen table. When the husband asks who the man is, the wife says he is just a friend.  

Several days go by, and every day, when the husband comes home, the stranger is there; he is eating at the husband’s table, playing with his children, and joking with his wife. Then, one day, the husband comes home to find the stranger abusing his wife. When the husband rushes in, yelling for the man to stop, the wife turns to the husband and says, “I would rather be abused by him than loved by you.”

I apologize for describing such a horrible scenario, and you may believe I have overstepped my bounds by publishing it, but that is precisely what we tell God when we choose to be abused by the World and give ourselves over to its “idols” allowing them to control and exploit us. In essence, we tell God, “We would rather be abused by the world, our flesh, and the devil than loved by You.”

I will continue to say that Ezekiel is a wake-up call for the Church, especially here in America. When will we return from our “lovers” to the Lord? And what will be the catalyst for true hope and real change? It’s when we return to a personal relationship with God through a saving relationship with Messiah Jesus and spending time with God in His Word.  

There will be no return to America’s prominence until there is a spiritual revival, which goes for any country. And there is no revival without a hardcore return to God’s Word, to the point where it saturates the souls of the individual believer so that they begin acting faithfully toward God, as a husband/wife relationship was created to operate.